QuestionPoint – Week 9

Things went well again this week. Quill dropped by my “office” while is was in the middle of trying to answer my patron’s inquiry about finding an activation key for Quickbooks 2005 he/she supposedly had checked out from his/her school library. I asked Quill how I might go about finding that information, and mentioned that I thought it was odd that the patron was able to borrow software from a library. Quill agreed that it was odd. I started to type a reply to that effect. Quill quickly discourage me from that tactic and suggested that I encourage the student to download a free trial of the latest version directly from the Quickbooks website instead. Once again, I was impressed by Quill’s diplomacy and reference services skills. I always learn something when I am around her. It was a point well taken.

I also had a patron with whom I spent nearly fifty minutes. That was record length for me. The patron was doing research on the correlation between gang membership and level of education. I ended up coaching the patron on the use of search engine tools and search term strategies (putting my information literacy instruction skills to good use). Though it took a great deal of time, the patron was pleased and thankful in the end.

All in all, it was a totally fun session!